


A Thousand Words

by Tigerkid14



Series: Aureate August 2018 [19]
Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-19
Updated: 2018-08-19
Packaged: 2019-06-29 18:49:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,026
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15735288
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tigerkid14/pseuds/Tigerkid14
Summary: Kara has trouble bringing food back from her world travels (in flight snacks are a thing on international flights, even Super ones) so she starts sending postcards instead





	A Thousand Words

**Author's Note:**

> For Aureate August 2018 day 19: Postcards - a card for sending a message by mail without an envelope, typically having a photograph or other illustration on one side

It started as a joke. Kara had always wanted to have a chance to explore planet Earth and see all the various sights she had read about in books or seen in various movies or TV shows. When she was being regular human Kara Danvers, she couldn’t go anywhere because the funds (and patience) for long airplane rides all over the world were non-existent. So she settled for her longing and being ordinary.

Then she became Supergirl and there were not quite the same restrictions on her movement that there had been in the beginning, so it became less of a thing if she wanted to go to Germany for proper bread or to Japan for a bowl (or five) of ramen. She even occasionally managed to bring treats back with her to share, but more often than not, she got hungry on the flight and well, in flight snacking was a thing on airplanes too.

She tried to come up with a way to share the adventures, not wanting this to be a thing she did all by herself, and feeling a little guilty about her lack of restraint in not managing to bring pho back with her every time she tried. So she settled for a non-food item.

Just about every place in the world has tourists, and tourists, Kara discovered, had one thing in common: postcards. Little squares with a picture on one side, space to write on the other, a simply way to send word to the folks back home that yes, you were here and you thought of them. And because it seemed traditional, she did exactly what the tourists did: she mailed them.

Alex was absolutely baffled the first time one showed up. She called Kara immediately, demanding, “When were you in Spain?”

“Oh good!” Kara exclaimed. “You got the postcard!” She was so excited she nearly jumped with the excess of energy, but she managed to restrain herself. “It took longer than I thought to get here, but I’ve been trying to keep it a surprise so I didn’t say anything.”

Alex took a deep breath and repeated, “When were you in Spain?”

“Oh, last week,” Kara answered blithely. “I wanted to see the Guggenheim museum in Bilbao and then there was this cafe just down the way that had the best paella and I saw the postcards and thought of you so I had to get one.”

“You’re wandering around foreign countries as Supergirl and nobody’s noticing?” Alex asked in disbelief.

“Oh no! I take a change of clothes and my passport, of course,” Kara’s voice held a quiet rebuke, as if she’d ever be so silly to go visiting other countries without her passport.

“Of course,” Alex echoed.

“Don’t you like the card?” Kara asked in a small voice, wondering if that was the issue.

Alex sighed. “I love the card, just...be careful.”

And that was that. Kara didn’t send one every time she went anywhere, but most time she did. She amassed quite the collection of foreign currency and stamps. Alex ended up getting her a locker at the DEO just to store them in for fear that someone might spot them in Kara’s apartment or desk drawer at work (just the thought of having to get Cat Grant to sign an NDA because she found Kara’s stash of international food money and then having to explain that to J’onn took years off Alex’s life).

But eventually it became normal, part of the routine strangeness of her life. A postcard from Mt. Fuji with a picture of the mountain framed by cherry blossoms. One from Nepal with an elephant on the front of it and a hastily scribbled note “she made me think of that science teacher from high school” that made Alex snort with laughter. Oddly, there was one from some citrus groves in Florida that was later accompanied by a crate of fruit, which Kara forever refused to explain, though she did help Alex juice a lot of the oranges.

Kara almost never wrote anything on the cards, or when she did it was a quick sentence about some thought she’d had about what she was seeing. Occasionally she did manage to bring back some of the food to share, which let Alex know to anticipate the arrival of the next card, but more often than not, the card arrived and if Alex asked, she’d be told about the food she’d missed out on.

Alex kept the cards in a box she stored in her desk at the DEO. She didn’t want to display them and have it raise questions, but she found they were nice to take out and look at sometimes, especially on the bad days.

What they both knew but never said was that this was Kara’s way of saying she loved Alex. Oh, they said it to each other in words and various other actions, but this was something that was just between the two of them and it let Alex know that Kara missed her sometimes, even when they’d seen each other only a little while before.

And when Kara went Argo to see her mom and might be gone forever, one of Alex’s repetitive thoughts beyond her jokes about wi-fi and email was that there was no mail in space.

It was a relief when Kara returned, returned to earth, returned to her.

And one last surprise came with that return. Kara offered it shyly, never having been around to see Alex receive one before, but she held it gently towards Alex saying quietly, “Turns out there’s tourists in space too. Sorry I couldn’t mail it.”

And Alex took it from her and laughed and laughed until she cried and then Kara started crying and they held each other and managed to talk through it all. Later, in violation of all her concerns about safety and discretion she found a magnet and stuck it on the mini-fridge in her office. It was a picture from Argo, overlooking the expanse of the city, printed in postcard size, and on the back Kara had written “Wish you were here”.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to CrimsonCat21 for the idea


End file.
